Backscatter’s Mini Strobe

Doe anyone have any first hand experience with Backscatter’s Mini Strobe/snoot?

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/backscatter-strobe-and-snoot-package.588154/
 

Thanks for the link.

Looks good.  I’ll be in Monterey next month, I think one is going to be added to my kit.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get a few dives in while I’m out there.

Phil Ruden did a review of the Mini Strobe/Snoot in the January issue of Underwater Photography Magazine at http://www.uwpmag.com/. Quite detailed.

Bob W

Thanks Bob, I did read that article.

I was looking for some hands on use by the members here.

I will be in Monterey next month and one will be coming home with me.

I plan on doing some diving while there, if so I’ll post my comments and hopefully some results.

Brant

On 1/15/2020 at 7:58 PM, PhotoJunkie said:

Thanks Bob, I did read that article.

I was looking for some hands on use by the members here.

I will be in Monterey next month and one will be coming home with me.

I plan on doing some diving while there, if so I’ll post my comments and hopefully some results.

 

Brant

Brant,

Phil is a member here. He brought a couple of prototypes home from DEMA to test for the article. Backscatter only started shipping orders late in December, so it'll be hard to find anyone with more experience with them than Phil, unless they work for Backscatter. Mine was delivered the 1st week in January and I plan to give it a workout next week in the Philippines, barring anymore activity from Taal. If you have any questions about the Mini, send Phil a PM.

Bob W

I will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the Backscatter Mini flash and snoot.

Hi there!
Although we don’t have Phil’s experience, my wife and myself tried our fresh new MF-1 snoot in Sydney’s local muck dive on saturday.
We had a total blast: both of us having a few shots we were happy with.
For context, our only other snoot experience was 1 dive with Retra’s LSD on an Inon z240, same dive site.
The results obtained with the Backscatter combo were much better, given that aiming is much easier (focus light has same beam size as the flash, so what you see is what you get).

What we haven’t figured out yet is how to precisely orientate the spotlight when using the reduction masks, as they make the shape of the spotlight quite blurry.
Phil would you know?

Nicolas


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

The snoot comes with two aperture cards, one with round holes and one with oval holes. If you use the oval card you can change the shape of the light from round to elongated by turning the snoot while it is mounted on the Mini flash. The shape of the focusing lights should then be the same as the flash. This allows you to harden or soften the edges of the light for different lighting effects. I have not used the Retra snoot, but like you guys I have found the MF-1 to be the easiest snoot I have used.  

Great thread - looks very interesting - quick question - if both LED outputs are used on my housing what would be the simplest way to trigger the mini flash if it were added as a third unit in lieu of focus light?

Cheers

John

3 hours ago, JohnVila said:

Great thread - looks very interesting - quick question - if both LED outputs are used on my housing what would be the simplest way to trigger the mini flash if it were added as a third unit in lieu of focus light?

Cheers

John

 

I have twinned my fiberoptic cords into an Inon L Sea&Sea type adapter and use a Nauticam to Sea&Sea bush on my Nauticam DSLR housing. So my 2 normal strobes fire off the one fiberoptic port and the mini-strobe off the other. Works very well.

I have twinned my fiberoptic cords into an Inon L Sea&Sea type adapter and use a Nauticam to Sea&Sea bush on my Nauticam DSLR housing. So my 2 normal strobes fire off the one fiberoptic port and the mini-strobe off the other. Works very well.

On 1/19/2020 at 11:25 PM, Bob_W said:

Mine was delivered the 1st week in January and I plan to give it a workout next week in the Philippines, barring anymore activity from Taal. If you have any questions about the Mini, send Phil a PM.

Bob W

 

 

Well, 15 minutes into my first dive to use the my mini-strobe, it failed. Bummer!! The focus light is turning off, so the strobe is triggering and processing the signal, but the flash tube isn't flashing. And to make matters worse, I took both Inons off my rig as I so wanted to jump into the mini. Everybody else was set up 1 and 1. I got to be a looker for the rest of the 1st dive and all of the 2nd. Really felt crazy swimming around with nothing in my hands. So back to using the Inons for the rest of the trip and starting the warranty process as soon as I get home. But at least the half dozen shots I took of the pygmy seahorse before it failed look pretty good, considering it was my first attempt with the mini. I didn't even get the chance to try the snoot.

Bob W

Argh! How annoying is that. Really sorry, Bob. Let us know how you get on with the warranty repair/replacement. 

I hope the pygmy shots are good!

No problem with mine after 4 dives. Here is a pygmy shot with it... but a Sydney pygmy pipehorse

I wish I had 500€ spare...

21 hours ago, TimG said:

Argh! How annoying is that. Really sorry, Bob. Let us know how you get on with the warranty repair/replacement. 

I hope the pygmy shots are good!

Kudos to Mike Bartick of Crystal Blue Resort, Philippines. He is the local distributor in this part of the world for the Backscatter Mini-Flash. He texted with Backscatter and received authorization to replace my unit. Can't get any better than that!

Bob W

Wow! Excellent! 

Yeah, Mike is a pro. Good man in the Philippines and a good teacher.